What automated warrior did Leonardo da Vinci design with a system of pulleys and gears?

Leonardo da Vinci designed a mechanical knight powered by pulleys and gears.

The armored figure was drawn around 1495 for a pageant in Milan, probably under the patronage of Ludovico Sforza. Its internal mechanism was intended to make the knight sit, stand, raise its arms, and move its head and jaw. The design is one of the earliest known plans for a humanoid automaton.

Leonardo’s mechanical knight was not a modern robot with electronic controls or artificial intelligence. It was a clockwork-style automaton operated by mechanical transmission. That distinction matters because the word “robot” is modern, while Leonardo’s device belongs to the Renaissance tradition of spectacular mechanical machines.

A full-scale reconstruction was built in the 21st century from Leonardo’s surviving drawings and notes. The reconstruction showed that the mechanism could perform several of the movements suggested by the design, although the original historical device has not survived.